Teel Time: U.Va., Tech among ACC's highest-paid basketball staffs

David Teel

After Virginia won the ACC regular-season and tournament basketball championships, and reached the NCAA Sweet 16, the school bumped the salaries of Tony Bennett’s assistant coaches 25 percent to $784,800.

When Virginia Tech introduced Buzz Williams as its head coach in March, athletic director Whit Babcock said the Hokies would pay Williams’ three assistants $725,000 combined, approximately one-third more than the previous staff.

Those increases make U.Va. and Tech among the ACC’s highest-paid basketball staffs.

Open-records requests to the conference’s other public schools — I checked with incoming Louisville rather than outgoing Maryland — show that only UofL is paying its assistants more. Considerably more, at that.

Indeed, with base salaries of $375,000 each, Mike Balado, Kenny Johnson and Wyking Jones earn more than any of their ACC public-school colleagues. Virginia associate head coach Ritchie McKay and North Carolina assistant Steve Robinson, both former head coaches, are next at $334,800 and $313,600, respectively.

The new contracts for McKay and colleagues Jason Williford and Ron Sanchez — the latter two make $225,000 each — were first reported by the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Louisville’s $1,125,000 for Rick Pitino’s three assistants, none of whom has worked there more than three seasons, is 43.3 percent above Virginia and 142 percent above Clemson.

Virginia Tech has yet to announce Williams' assistants, though he's known to have hired Steve Roccaforte, previously of South Florida, and Isaac Chew, who accompanied Williams from Marquette.